Misguided souls
Detractors of Christianity may be wrong
You might think Andy is a fool. You see his
hurting eyes underneath that oversized ball cap
and can’t help but feel sorry for him. He’s just
a poor little sixth-grader; he doesn’t under
stand that he has been conned. He sits with his
elbows on his knees, head hanging as thoughts
tumble through his mind. You can’t even see
why he Came here - to supposedly learn about
right from wrong.
You look around Pershing Auditorium and
see 6,800 other kids like Andy and a few par
ents, too; all of them here to find out about
what the Bible has to say about morality. An
event called “Counter the Culture” is terrible,
you say. We should embrace our culture and its
“diversity.” You want to run up on stage and
scream in the microphone, “Get out of here.
Christianity is nothing but a big scam!”
BuCyou know that even if you did, the
thousands of people would simply ignore you.
They’re in a trance or something. Christianity
has this-'effect on people that pulls the wool
over their eyes, so they can’t even understand
what’s happening to them.
You are an intellectual, and intellectuals
place their faith in knowledge. Not some
wacked-out, unfounded belief in some deity
that is so out of touch with the world he might
as well appear on “Star Wars.” " /
I guess on the surface it all seems pretty
harmless. First on stage is a cookie-cutter rock
band. The band members have Brad Pitt hair
cuts, are wearing all black and are singing
songs about worship and God. Then comes an
over-the-top comic/rapper who tries to make
morality down-to-earth.
But then there’s Josh McDowell, this
Christian author/speaker who kind of reminds
you of Chris Farley on Saturday Night Live.
He’s not breaking coffee tables, but he’s going
on and on about family and God and a real
right and wrong.
He’s just corrupting these young minds
with this garbage. He doesn’t understand that
today’s society doesn’t need God, the church
and especially doesn’t need the Bible.
He says that moral relativism is a load of
crap - that God has given us absolute truths
written in the Bible. That means that there is a
real right and real wrong that don’t change
from person to person or culture to culture.
How absurd can a philosophy be? This
McDowell guy is trying to say that God creat
ed each of us, loves each of us and wants us to
know him. And on top of that, he wants us to
live our lives according to his word.
Good thing this is the 1990s. There is no
room for God here. This society is about toler
ance and personal beliefs. There is no way that
there can be an all-encompassing truth for
everyone.
But Andy doesn’t know that. McDowell is
on stage giving his testimony, and Andy falls
right into the trap. The speaker says that in col
lege he set out to disprove Christianity.
McDowell traveled all over the world talking
with academics and historians, all to show the
world what a crock this “religion” is. But he
couldn’t disprove Christianity; instead he
accepted Christ as his savior. Then his friends
became saved. And his alcoholic father.
By this time Andy is really .getting swin
dled. He hears McDowell’s story of life change
and buys it hook, line and sinker. He thinks he
has seen what God can do. McDowell reminds
him not to make a decision based on simple
efnotion, but to make a serious, conscious
choice to accept Christ. Andy feels God tug
v ging on his heart to make the right choice, and
he does.
McDowell asks everyone who made a deci
sion to stand up and go to another room to talk
about what it means. So Andy gathers up the
courage and leaves the room with his dad. He
sits down with a volunteer to talk about
Christianity and the Bible. Andy’s eyes show
his fear. Fear of what his friends would say. But
more importantly, fear of what this decision
still means for his life.
And you might hang your head in disgust.
Just another life wasted on a system of beliefs
thousands of years old and billions of years
obsolete. Andy is wrong. So are the 6,800
other people that think Jesus may make sense
in their lives. So are the millions of other
Christians in the world.
But what if they’re right?
What if Andy didn’t throw away
his time and energy into a lost
cause? Maybe a man who
died 2,000 years ago is as
real, even more real, than
anyone living today.
Maybe we should
try to counter the
culture. Maybe
right and wrong
aren’t blurred
into a gray,
amorphous
mess we can’t
understand.
Maybe truth
isn’t like a
bubble
floating
away
from a
little
child
Kut
more
like a
rock you
can stand on.
About 3 bil
lion people in the
world believe in the Bible. A
lot of them take different things
from it, and many disagree on interpre
tations. But nevertheless, they still i
believe in it. Maybe it shouldn’t be disre
garded as a piece of religious banter with- |
out relevance. *
Isn’t Christianity just a life of rules and
regulations, void of fun and enjoyment? Or is
Josh McDowell right when he says, “True free
dom is to have the capacity to know what we
ought to do?” Maybe Christianity is a life of
freedom.
So Andy probably just made the biggest
decision of his life. And you might still think
he made the wrong choice. A life for Christ is a
life of ignorance. Or maybe it’s the other way
around.
J.J. Harder is a senior political science and broadcasting major and a Daily Nebraskan columnist
Playing against type
Man has good time disproving stereotypical perceptions
Stereotypes are how people categorize you
with what small amount of information they may
have.
Maybe they don’t know your name, where
you grew up or how old you are, but these facts
have nothing to do with it. All it takes is one look
at you, and, POOF! You’re labeled.
Of course, most people don’t like to be
stereotyped, and some spend their lives trying to
get out from under a stereotype.
Personally, though, I really don’t mind it at
all. In fact, I kind of like being, as I call myself, a
walking stereotype. How? Let me explain.
First, let’s start with the most obvious aspect:
I’m black. That by itself opens enoughxans of
worms to feed all of Hitchcock’s birds!
According to all assumptions, I listen to rap
music. Loud rap music. Rap music so loud the
little purple monkeys on Saturn have to plug
their ears.
And I have to be doing it in a low rider that’s
so low I don’t have a floorboard.
Arid, of course, every time I’m not in my hip
hop-playin’, concrete-scrapin’ pimpwagon, I’m
stalking little old ladies so I can run off with their
purses or their wigs and hightail it to the next big
city.
Oh yeah, I’m also strapped! (For you non
street-wise lot, that means I carry a gun.) Didn’t
you know that every single black person in
America is strapped all the time? Yeah! I thought
everyone knew that - or is that just a common
misconception?
There are other categories I fit in as well; let’s
explore some of them.
„ I can tell you I’m a theater major. What does
that mean?Nothing, if I don’t plan on making
anything out of myself.
You see, being a theater major means that
I’m paying for 4lA years of college so I can live
the rest of my life with absolutely no money at
all.
This also means that after I graduate with my
pointless degree, I’ll be living in a tiny studio
apartment in New York with 12 other people, and
none of us will have any money or a job because
all we want to do is act.
That is, with the exception of three of us at a
time who work as waiters and bartenders. They
don’t have any money either, though, because all
of it goes toward paying our rent so we can keep
our tiny studio apartment
Of course, it’s not always the same three that
work. As soon as one of us gets a role (no matter
how minuscule), we immediately quit our job to
dedicate all of our time to the part. Of course, the
next person has to find a job, but that’s beside the
point - we’re acting!
Being a theater major also means that I walk
around all year wearing a beret, dark sunglasses
and black clothes smoking a cigarette. And, of
course, no one can talk to me because I’m just
too good for you people who don’t understand
what it’s like to be an actor.
Of course, I could be wrong.
Am I done yet? Heck no! Being a walking
stereotype obviously means ther^are more than
two strikes against me.
Strike three? I live in Nebraska. That makes
me a com-huskin’, football-watchin ’, cow
throwin’(or tippin’) farmer. ^
Wait a minute! That doesn’t work because I
was bom in and spent most of my life in
Tennessee. Go ahead; take a few seconds to get
all your Vols jokes out. (one one hundred, two
one hundred, three one hun-)
Andrew D. Wicks is a freshman theater n
Ready? OK, by now we’ve determined that
I’m a Vols-watchin’, sister-lovin’, monster-truck
drivin’ hillbilly.
Obviously, this totally goes against the whole
black thing. I mean, I’ve never heard of a black
hillbilly, have you? What does that matter,
though. All stereotypes fit, right?
It’s fun being a walking stereotype.
It’s fun because there are occasions when I
get to make people look like total and complete
idiots. Think about it. If someone believes a
stereotype placed on a particular group, he or sh<
tends to see that and only that.
Unless you get to disprove it. You can
either embarrass them, make them real
ize that what they Ye thinking is wrong
(at least when it comes to you) or
befriend them.
. The latter is probably the most
rewarding in die long run, but the
first one can be pretty damn
fun!
One way or another, dis
proving a stereotype is the
easiest way to spread the word on how wrong it
is to have them. You can think of it as being your
own personal social equalizer. And, as I said
before, it’s a great way to make friends.
By the way, I don’t have a sister, and if I did,
our relationship would not be like that! I’ve never
been a Vols fan; I’ve always been a Husker fan.
Oh, and I won’t be living in a studio in New
York - it’ll be in Atlanta.
See, social equalization - ain’t it great?